We knew it was coming and Samsung made things official by launching its 20.7-megapixel Galaxy K zoom, which is the follow up to last year's Galaxy S4 Zoom.
Samsung launched its first camera-centric smartphone last summer when it unveiled the Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom. The device converged a Galaxy smartphone with a high-end 16-megapixel camera. The handset never took off with consumers, mostly due to its extremely bulky body.
It appears Samsung heard the complaints and went back to the drawing board for the Galaxy S4 Zoom's successor. The company just announced the Galaxy K zoom, which takes design inspiration from the Galaxy S5 but is part of a new Galaxy K series.
"With the introduction of the Galaxy K zoom, Samsung continues to demonstrate our commitment to creating products that meet the diverse demands of our consumers," said Sun Hong Lim, senior VP of Mobile Communications Business at Samsung Electronics.
"The new Galaxy K zoom empowers users to effortlessly capture and share their most important everyday moments in stunning clarity, with the convenience and connectedness of a Galaxy smartphone, for a unique, all-in-one mobile experience," he said.
The Samsung Galaxy K zoom features a 4.8-inch 1280 x 720 HD Super AMOLED display, runs Android 4.4 KitKat out of the box on top of Samsung's TouchWiz UI. The smartphone is powered by a hexa-core processor with a 1.3GHz quad-core chip, 1.7Ghz dual-core processor, and 2GB of RAM. The handset includes 8GB of internal storage and a microSD expansion slot that will support up to 64GB microSD cards.
The main attraction of the Galaxy K zoom is its 20.7-megapixel rear camera with BSI CMOS sensor, 10x Optical Zoom, optical image stabilization (OIS), Xenon Flash, ability to record 1920 x 1080 Full HD video @ 60fps and a 2-megapixel front facing camera for video chat and selfies.
Its wireless connectivity options consist of a 4G LTE raido, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0 Low Energy, NFC, and GPS. The Galaxy K zoom ships with a 2,430 mAh battery.
Samsung gave the Galaxy K zoom a much thinner design compared to the Galaxy S4 Zoom and it also has the dimpled back Samsung introduced with the Galaxy S5.
The Samsung Galaxy K zoom will be available in choice of charcoal black, electric blue, and shimmery white and will go on sale in May. Once we hear an exact release date, we'll pass it on.
